Trump ties autism risk to Tylenol as scientists urge caution
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump (C), alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (L) and Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz (R), speaks about autism in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on September 22, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
U.S. President Donald Trump has vehemently insisted that pregnant people should "tough it out" and avoid Tylenol over an unproven link to autism, and urged major changes to the standard vaccines administered to babies.
The Republican leader's announcement rife with sweeping yet unsubstantiated advice came as the White House has vowed to revolutionize health in the United States, and as experts across medicine and science voice broad concern over the administration's initiatives that appear intent on unraveling decades of medical consensus.
Medical groups including The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have long cited acetaminophen, the primary ingredient in Tylenol, as among the safest painkillers to take during pregnancy.
But Trump, who hammered on his message in increasingly emphatic terms, insisted that "taking Tylenol is not good" and to "fight like hell not to take it."
He said pregnant people should "tough it out," and that only an "extremely high fever" would justify taking the over-the-counter medicine.
That's not true: Fever and pain can pose serious threats to both the mother and the developing fetus.
Arthur Caplan, the head of NYU's medical ethics division, called Trump's display "dangerous," "unscientific" and "full of misinformation."
"I worry that pregnant women are going to feel guilty if they took Tylenol. They're going to feel they let down their babies. They're going to feel that they were unethical in terms of trying to treat fever. That's just not fair, and it's not anything that anybody should be feeling," Caplan told AFP.
Identifying the root of autism, a complex condition connected to brain development that many experts believe occurs for predominantly genetic reasons, has been a pet cause of Trump's health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy for decades has spread debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.
